In August, Matt and I took advantage of a rare opportunity to see two things we had never seen before – a full solar eclipse and Saint Louis, Missouri! Since we love traveling and science, it was a no brainer for us to travel to a new city in order to view the rare eclipse.
The eclipse was cutting across the entire country so we had many cities to choose from for our adventure. We settled on Saint Louis for two reasons. One, my father in law’s house is between Houston and Saint Louis which made it easy for us to visit them during this trip. And two, neither of us had ever been to Saint Louis and it seemed somewhat doubtful that we’d find ourselves needing to go there in the near future. It seemed like a great opportunity to see a city we wouldn’t perhaps see otherwise.
Now I will admit, having never been to Saint Louis before I was not really sure what to expect. In fact I kind of expected to be pretty unimpressed with the whole city. But I was extremely surprised! Unfortunately, we were only in the city for a few hours, and I actually felt disappointed that I didn’t get to spend more time in the city exploring.
Our first stop in Saint Louis was at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I had read good things about it online and decided to check it out. It was awesome! It was by far the largest botanical garden I’ve ever visited, and it was beautifully done. There were several picturesque locations to simply sit and enjoy the view. One point of note – it was hot! The eclipse was in late August and as a Houstonian I expected that traveling almost 15 hours north would equate to cooler temperatures. I was wrong. It was miserably hot.
We had to leave the botanical gardens when they closed for the day (we could have stayed longer if they’d have let us – that’s how enjoyable it was!) From there we went to our hotel, which was located in downtown Saint Louis across the freeway from the Gateway Arch.
Now one of the most unexpected delights of Saint Louis is the architecture. Driving around the city to the gardens and hotel, I was amazed by all the turn-of-the-century style brick buildings and row houses. If I had more time in the city, I definitely would’ve explored some neighborhoods to get a closer look at that beautiful architecture. Alas, we were on an extremely tight time schedule.
For dinner we walked from our hotel under the freeway to a cobblestone road with several cute brick buildings and ate at The Spaghetti Factory. We learned once there that it’s actually a chain, not a Saint Louis-specific restaurant, but it was still worth going to as the building was awesome! It was an old brick building that really felt like stepping back in time.
After dinner it was quite late, but we were happy to see the Gateway Arch didn’t close until 10pm. We confidently walked over to the arch, fully expecting to be able to go up on a tour. Unfortunately, they had sold out of tickets completely by noon that day! We hadn’t even gotten into town until 3pm, so that was just not going to happen. Learn from our mistakes – buy tickets well ahead of time if you want to go up into the arch!
The walk to the arch wasn’t a complete waste though, as it is much different to see the arch up close and personal than from a distance. I can’t believe how huge it is! It is so tall and thin it seems to defy physics, as if it should simply topple over from it’s own weight. It’s very interesting to see.
The next day was eclipse day. To view the eclipse, we drove about 30 minutes south of Saint Louis to Washington State Park. The park itself was large and offered some lovely views of the hills as well as some nice short hikes while we waited for the actual eclipse. There was also a river that a ton of people were playing in. It looked really fun and refreshing but I hadn’t thought ahead to bring a swimsuit! All in all, it was a very pleasant place to spend the entire day while waiting for the eclipse.
The eclipse itself was of course awesome – seeing it in person was so worth the 15 hour drive. The partial eclipse I would’ve seen from Houston would not have compared at all, and photos do not do the full eclipse justice.
After that we had to begin the long drive back to Houston, and I was disappointed I didn’t get to spend more time in the city. I chose Saint Louis because I couldn’t see myself ever going there for any other reason, and now I’m hoping to find an excuse to go back one day and see more!
Saint Louis stats:
- Ease of access: easy – we drove in and of course there is an airport as well. The freeways were also not bad, and traffic was not too annoying
- Price – affordable. Our hotel was the normal $140 or so you might expect to pay, and since it’s not a traditional “tourist” town, I didn’t feel like I was being upcharged for everything I wanted to do
- Clothes: in the summer, shorts and tank tops! Still not over how hot it was and I am from Texas
- Crowds: not bad! I hate crowds and never felt like I was being crowded out. And it was eclipse weekend, so I felt there were probably more people there than usual as well
- Recommend: if you find a reason to go, absolutely! I don’t know if I will travel back there just for the sake of travelling there, as I didn’t feel there was that much to do. But if I find myself in the area again for business or just for passing through, I will make sure to book an extra day or two to really explore the city better than I got to this time. Also, as an avid hiker, I was very impressed with how many state parks and how much nature was just a short drive outside of the city. It may be worth it for the hikes alone
While our trip was short, I still felt like Saint Louis had a lot to offer and made the eclipse even more enjoyable.
Do you have a favorite spot in Saint Louis? Comment below to let us know!
Two Traveling Peas 